Why did toshiba stop making hd-dvds?

Question

i know blu-ray is good and all but,isn't blu-ray more expensive than hd-dvd?

Answer 1

Because Blu-ray won the format war.

Answer 2

just tell me who's going to be able to compete against the giant....SONY they make everything with quality...

and i think the reason they stopped manufacturing HDDVD both movies and players......is because they saw that everyone start supporting blu-ray so they knew it was over........and it was better just stop fighting that look stupid and pretend nothing happened......

Answer 3

Blu-Ray players are more expensive. The movies are not. Just buy them from the right places. Not Walmart or Circuit City. Amazon and Best Buy have great sales all the time. And to the guy above who said Toshiba is owned by Time Warner, Ive never heard that. Do you have a link that makes that fact?

Answer 4

Let's put this in perspective.

Blu-ray and HD DVD were two competing formats introduced to try to revive sagging profits from DVD sales by pursuading consumers to repurchase their DVD libraries on a new expensive format. There were two formats because the companies behind each of them wanted the potential royalties ($billions) and they couldn't agree on one format. Hence the "HD format war".

Blu-ray equipment was more expensive than HD DVD, but Blu-ray disks and HD DVD disks were theoretically about the same price (with Blu-ray disks in actuality being subsidized to support lower sale prices to a greater degree than HD DVD disks). Now the war is over prices will rise (at least for a while).

The format war was waged primarily to decide which big companies would have the right to collect the royalties from the winning format, but the studios wanted to have a format that protects their copyrighted material (movies) ... so they supported Blu-ray in the end because it had region coding and stronger copy protection, AND because they were concerned that the "war" was having an impact on DVD sales and they were worried about the looming spectre of video download services (similar to MP3 but for movies) cutting into their profits (They make more money from disks than they will from downloads) if they didn't end the war and support one HD format.

Once the studios picked Blu-ray, Toshiba really had no choice but to discontinue HD DVD ... no movies, no future.

So the HD format war is over ... and the real battle is underway. Opinions vary, with some feeling that Blu-ray will replace DVD (because consumers want higher quality and to actually own a physical disk), others feeling the longer term future is with download/Video on Demand (VOD) (which fit consumer desire for convenience -- particularly for rentals), and others (including me) who think there will be a mix (DVD remaining the main physical format, Blu-ray as a niche premium HD format and downloads/VOD as another niche format).

It remains to be seen, but nothing is going to change very quickly since Blu-ray is a tiny player that only a small portion of consumers can (so far) benefit from (Blu-ray requires a minimum of an HDTV to see ANY benefit and a large 1080p HDTV and a good surround system for full benefit ... equipment the vast majority of consumers don't have, and are not in a hurry to buy), new DVD titles are still being turned out faster than new Blu-ray titles, and infrastructure, capacity and business model issues prevent downloads (at least HD resolution ones) from being a viable option for most consumers for some time yet.

Hope that provides an overview ... and answers your question.

Answer 5

In the past few months, several companies announced that they would be withdrawing their support for HD-DVD and supporting Blu-ray instead. Warner Bros., Wal-Mart, and Best Buy were among the major companies that decided to support Blu-ray in the format war. As a result, Toshiba decided to discontinue the format, citing "recent major changes in the market".

Answer 6

in case you hadnt heard no one is making hd dvd anymore blu ray one the so called war of the formats so no mor hd sorry to let you know as far as price goes now that there is no competition maybe the price will drop a lil

Answer 7

Toshiba is owned by Time Warner, who also owns Warner Bros. Pictures. It started as a marketing decision by Warner Bros. due to the fact that consumers were completely confused. If you were on Y/A's home theater category as recently as January of this year, every third question was "What's the difference between Bluray and HDDVD?" The danger, in their minds (WB execs,) was that we would reject high definition DVD altogether and stick with standard DVD. After all, they look pretty darn good on an HDTV.

Warner Bros. Picture's announcement to support Bluray exclusively last January tipped the scale, which was already favoring Bluray, to the point that Toshiba's HD-DVD couldn't possibly survive. Although Toshiba waited almost an entire month to announce, an ex Toshiba executive I know suggested that this was discussed in detail between the various Time Warner subsidiaries long before the public was made aware.

I'm sure you'll get answers supporting several other reasons, but this one is the most direct in my opinion. For corporations, it's always about the money.